Die „Glückliche Heilige Familie“ in den Jesus-Filmen

Abstract

As a mode of cultural expression, film provides a fertile ground for the hermeneutics of suspicion, for paying attention to the ways in which contemporary concerns and sensibilities shape exegesis, and for considering the cultural afterlife of biblical women and their menfolk. In this paper, I will look at the depictions of Jesus' family relationships in film. In doing so, I will concentrate primarily on the cinematic expansions of and additions to the canonical texts. Most of the family-related expansions in the Jesus films express a theme that we might call “The Happy Holy Family”, in which emphasis is placed on the love and harmony among Jesus, Mary and Joseph. I will argue that these additions serve two functions. One is to resolve the tensions inherent in the Gospel accounts. The second is to convey, indirectly and implicitly, the film-makers' christologies, that is, their understanding of Jesus as the Messiah whose nature is both human and divine. Fundamental to both of these functions is a set of commonplace assumptions regarding family life, human development and social relationships.